In the meat processing industry, it is necessary to remove a certain amount of fat and membrane from animal muscles. This is conventionally accomplished by the use of open top skinning machines wherein the muscles are manipulated by hand to expose various surfaces of the muscle or meat product to the cutting blade and gripping roll of the skinning machine. This system is tedious, and can cause repetitive motion injuries. It is also relatively slow, and there is a high variation in the amount of material removed due to the differences in skinning machine operators.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a meat product skinning machine which will automate the fat and membrane removing process so that the operator needs only to place the meat product on the intake conveyor on the machine, and which will substantially increase the output of the machine.
A further object of this invention is to provide a meat product skinning machine that will be safer to operate; which will eliminate repetitive motion injuries, and which will eliminate operator-induced variations in the final "skinned" products.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.